Bend It Like Kiryu
by nebulaX
Summary: It's the FIFA World Cup games, and Kaien Cross tries to figure out when and how Zero Kiryu became such a football fanatic after being such a moody, silent kid by nature. Humor, kawaii-ness, and ridiculous family bonding included. Takes place before Cross Academy during Yuuki and Zero's adolescent years living with the headmaster. Kaname and Yagari make an appearance! Zeki ONE-SHOT


**With the 2014 FIFA World Cup going on, I had a sudden idea to do a one-shot with Zero getting really into the games at a time during his adolescent years with the headmaster. Why not? He seems totally like the guy who would get all fierce about soccer! Well anyway, I figured it would be great to bring Kaien Cross and Yuuki into the mix, and their reaction to his little hobby. Humor, kawaii-ness, and ridiculous family bonding included. **

**A few things: I use the word 'football', instead of 'soccer' here. Only because other countries besides U.S say football. **

**I use some nerdy soccer terms, but they're not that hard to figure out for those who don't know the sport. **

**I already mentioned this, but this story takes place when Yuuki and Zero are in their early teen years living with Kaien Cross. Before Cross Academy. Yagari Touga and Kaname make an appearance though!**

**Enjoy the happy one-shot!**

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XX

Kaien Cross knew being a foster father wasn't easy, especially to two completely uncommon children who could have been plucked from wholly different ends of a temperament spectrum. While Yuuki was innocently simple and sunny and, as Kaien liked to mention, painstakingly cute, Zero was the epitome of a tragic recluse hell-bent on avenging his past and tarrying on to a grim future.

It only made sense, Kaien thought, since the boy was cursed to become a vampire hunter. A vampire hunter who was bitten by a pureblood and was at the high risk of falling to Level E. A vampire hunter who had no family, no mutual support, and had to watch his twin leave him in his maddened state to join his enemy.

_Sheesh_. The once-legendary hunter could only blow an exhausted sigh. He had to admit taking care of Zero was a task on a whole other level. Yuuki was manageable, more so because approaching her was not followed by daggers dipped in dark, hateful energy aimed at his face. Well, sometimes. But Zero…well, Zero was just someone he had to monitor on a regular basis. And he couldn't blame him.

_That poor boy is probably sulking right now._ He thought. The house was seemingly quiet. He chose to take some time to himself in his office, before doing another daily round of making sure his adopted children were well and functioning.

But Kaien Cross underestimated Zero Kiryu's ability to rebound from his traumatic darkness, or at least to do other things besides sulking. The time of the year that Zero was looking forward to for awhile had come, and he welcomed it as subtle and silently as possible by running to the living room every now and then to turn on the T.V and lose himself to the sport of football for the next few hours.

But it was not _just _football, Zero repeated in his head, it was the FIFA World Cup. It was the one sport that could get him all riled up about fierce competitions and sly strategies and endless predicted passes that may or may not guarantee a goal until much later in a game. It was like war between countries—every match was a battle without swords, a manipulation of the battlefield like no other, an endless run and retreat, and slowly and skillfully, the delivery of the final attack. The audience's excitement was fueled with fire, and the bloodbath between opposing players ran rampant. It was all or nothing.

And Zero liked that. He liked that a lot.

"At least it keeps him occupied." Yagari Touga had said the day when Kaien had come across this ruthless mental activity in the living room for the first time. The young silvered-haired boy had not moved from the T.V since, and Kaien could not find a more curious display of active participation. Or more like being in a trance.

"But I've never seen Zero-kun this way!" Kaien had cried. "He's never liked football or any other sport before!"

"Actually he used to play with Ichiru and Kaito back at the Kiryu household." Yagari gave him a blunt look. "Football teaches precision and strategic maneuvering, and I made sure they learned both during training. Plus it's fun." He shrugged.

_Fun_. Kaien had shivered at the thought. Zero Kiryu defined everything else but fun.

It was quite an unexpected change of scene indeed, and for the next few weeks, Kaien was determined to get a word out of his adopted son. It was not that he didn't like seeing him find interest in something productive and less destructive for once, but being who he was, Kaien wanted to test the boy's limits. He wanted to see what Zero found so interesting with football and the Fifa World Cup games.

But as always, Kaien approached him in the most indiscreet and futile of ways.

"Zero-kun, when are you going to do your homework? Your chores?" He shouted out dramatically one day. "Who's going to look after Yuuki-chan? What about her tutoring? What about her—"

"Shut up, headmaster, I'm trying to watch!" Was the only vein-popping response Zero could supply each time.

It became a constant nagging routine, and Kaien played the role of the furious, spazz-tastic mother quite well, the one who believed it was the end of the world if her children did nothing but watch sports all day. But he knew Zero was not the one to ignore his other responsibilities; the boy had finished his chores, his homework, and his tutoring to Yuuki before the day was done. And yet, Kaien found it an entertaining sport to bug Zero with his dramatic flares. It was, he liked to call it, his only way for a father and son bonding time.

"That fucker can't even pass the ball…Pass the ball!" Zero yelled at the screen another day. "Goddammit seriously? That was an easy goal! What the fuck are they even doing?"

"Easy, they can easily rebound during the second half." Yagari answered casually. Kaien was not even surprised to see the gruff one-eye seeing hunter become a constant visitor to his home. His excuse was always to talk about the Association business, but of course Kaien knew it was for other obvious reasons.

"Sensei…why do you come here anyway?" Zero noticed the hunter hang out lazily on the sofa next to him, stretching his combat-boot adorned feet on the table before him.

"What do you think?" Was always his answer. "That idiot Cross wants me to track your outlier behavior."

"Shhhh…No I don'tttt!" Kaien could only shout creepily from behind the walls.

Of course, Yagari Touga wasn't the only guinea pig to test Kaien's little experiment on Zero. His adopted daughter, Yuuki Cross, was also reliable bait, an easy weakness to make the young hunter spill out his deepest, darkest secrets. She was as naïve to the sport, or any other sports, as Kaien was, so watching her take sudden interest in Zero's passionate past-time was a thing of beauty—an interplay between two opposing forces that Kaien could only admire and squeal at with flowery abnormality.

"Why did he get a flag, Zero?" She had presented the question as shyly as possible. It was one of those days when the girl had finally abandoned her studies to sit next to Zero as he grudgingly threw fists and grinding teeth at the screen.

"Because he was off-side." Zero answered, only being presented with a confused silence. "OFF. SIDE." But Yuuki returned a mere smile that could only register as that she had gotten nothing. With a sigh, Zero waited for a commercial before explaining to her about the rules of the game.

"See Yuuki, a player is off-side if he crosses the enemy's goal line before the ball or the last defender gets there." He took her hand and played out the sequence on her palm with his fingers. "Or if he crosses the enemy's half of the pitch. That player's goal won't count if he makes one. So the referee raises a flag." His face could not have been any redder, but Yuuki was adamant to take in the information with an expression full of determination. As unaware of his feelings as she was, Yuuki was still hell-bent on making a good impression. She surprisingly picked up the rules quite well.

"Why is Yuuki…" Kaname Kuran, then only in his late teens, had dropped by at Kaien's house after hearing about her feat, only to find her fixated at the screen during a match, Zero beside her. "When did this happen?"

"Yuuki-chan is working really hard to impress her tutor." Kaien had snickered. "And Kiryu-kun…well, I still don't know about his obsession with football…" His eyes had drifted back to the pair.

"Take note, Yuuki. Japan may lose this match, but they still can advance to the next round because their total scores are par with the world champion team. But if they lose the next one, they're eliminated from Group D, or the Game of Death." Zero watched the girl scribble away profusely on her notepad. "That's called the elimination round."

"Elimination round. Got it!" Yuuki chimed intensely.

"It's unacceptable." Kaname replied blandly as he watched Zero pass some snacks to Yuuki without another word to pass between them. "I don't want my little girl enjoying such a reckless and violent sport. It's unlady-like and disruptive of her education."

"Kaname-kun, you're just upset that she's paying more attention to Kiryu than you." Kaien added riskily. The pureblood vampire could have responded with a deadly ruse of his own, but he could only smile at the inevitable truth.

"Well then…it's a good thing FIFA only comes around once every four years. I expect this to be over soon." He had turned for the door before Yuuki found out about his visit. "I, for one, am _not_ buying her a vuvuzela."

But Kaname did not have to. It was only two days later when Kaien came across Zero's room with a box-load of "football stuff", as he liked to call. The t-shirts supporting the Japanese team were prevalent, as well as two colorful vuvuzelas that could only signify that Zero had absentmindedly bought one for Yuuki.

_Where's mine_. Kaien pouted in dismay as he noticed Zero give Yuuki her instrument hours later. Of course, Zero was not as inclined to play his as Yuuki was with hers, but Kaien noticed the subtle increase of this FIFA football obsession taking over his entire house. Soon the living room became a hotspot for all things football-related: snacks, fan accessories, team jerseys that seemed to fit both Zero and Yuuki perfectly, and of course, the games themselves. It was like a disease that spread its infestation without his knowing. Sure, it had only been three years since Kaien had taken in Zero after the death of his parents, but was he always such a fanatic?

"It's about the sportsmanship…the competition, headmast—er father!" Yuuki had excitedly answered to his curiosity. "It's all or nothing!"

_Of course he would say that. _Kaien had only smiled at her response. But he had to admit even he was getting the fever. Football was indeed a fascinating sport, and the excitement and energy that permeated from the screen only worked him up even more. There were times when even he would sit idly behind his two children to become absorbed by the match.

"Oooo, Kiryu, Kiryu! Look at Portugal go! Ooo ooo, he's so close! He's so close, Kiryu! That ball's going to make it! That's ball going to—"

"Shut up, headmaster!" Zero pushed him away from sinking in between their faces. "And that's not Portugal, idiot, it's Argentina."

Kaien Cross had only found himself joining his two adopted children few more times before he realized he had not asked Zero the important question. After weeks of seeing his intensity fester over a human sport and his hopeless angst put aside, Kaien felt it was time to drop the bomb before the season came to a close.

"Kiryu-kun, you really like football, huh?" He came across him watching the second-to-last match of the world cup alone. Japan had failed to progress past the elimination round, and the hype had died down just a bit. "Even though you're so moody all the time."

Zero, naturally, had already an answer prepared. It was one of the few times he didn't feel like punching his foster father in the face for being so nosy with the hobbies he chose to keep private.

"Sports is a distraction, headmaster. It makes me feel…normal." Zero had answered casually before offering a scary smile. "And I secretly want to be like Ronaldo."

The revelation had set Kaien on a shocking sprint for the rest of the day. Indeed it was the ultimate climax of his findings, of why Zero Kiryu turned into an energetic fan-boy during sports season while being a dour recluse for most of his everyday life. Of course, Kaien already knew this—he always knew the young boy wanted to divert his attention to other things than his grinding curse, to find normality in a world of supernatural beings, and to seek a few moments of peace away from the chaotic corner he already lived in.

Kaien Cross wanted the best for his children, and to see both Zero and Yuuki turn this pastime into something commonplace was a delight to his eyes. He had shared a good few hours with them in the living room for the weeks that passed, even going as far as taking a picture of the back of their heads staring at the T.V screen. It was family bonding, as he liked to call it.

"Huhhh, it feels so empty now…" Kaien sighed days after the FIFA world cup was over, and the living room had returned back to its unoccupied self. "Kiryu-kun didn't even stay all the way to the end of the final match to see who got the world cup…"

"Well everything eventually comes to an end, right?" Yagari blew out a smoke from his cigarette. "Kid will just have to find something else to do before the next one comes along."

"I hope it's not back to sulking in the bathtub." Kaien cried. "Oh, I hate it when something so perfectly good ends so quickly! Football is not even going to be as exciting anymore!"

"Oh…I wouldn't say that." Yagari smirked before looking out the window. The day was still young, but Kaien had joined his line of vision to come across something more inviting.

"You bought him a ball?" Kaien noticed the obvious display behind his house.

Yagari continued to smirk at his unintentional act of kindness. "I fucking bought him a ball."

Sure enough, the backyard had turned into a mini makeshift football field. Even if it was just Zero and Yuuki on their own, Kaien was surprised, and wholly excited, to see them take to the grass to play a little game of their own. It was definitely not as complex or integrated as a full match with teams, but it was still something Zero felt as a good practice for him to teach Yuuki how to kick the ball and defend her goal.

"I'm ready, Zero!" Yuuki said as she stood at the end of her side as goalie.

The young silver-haired boy answered back with a nod, dropping his new football to the ground and aiming it at the goalpost with his foot. _Be Ronaldo…be Ronaldo…be Ronaldo…_

The chant was enough to get his ball past Yuuki's defense. Of course, he didn't expect her to pick up those skills so quickly, but it was the first try towards hopefully many attempts to come. After all, he prided himself in knowing most things before she did, and he valued himself for being useful for her sake.

"Look at my babies goo…" Kaien cooed as he patted Yagari's back with great appreciation. Sure being a father was tough, not to mention to two children who were destined to become something else entirely in the future. But despite all of that, it was nice to see something as conventional as sports turn a few weeks into something special for all three of them. It was therapeutic to escape the reality of the vampire world to indulge in the human invention of competitive play. And even if the FIFA World Cup games had come and gone, Zero was still adamant on continuing his secret love for football. Yagari, after all, had enforced it.

"You're more sexy than Ronaldo, Kiryu-kun!" Kaien shouted out impulsively. "You can doooo ittt!"

"Shut up, headmaster!" Zero yelled back in annoyance. A part of him, however, had to hide the smile that was fighting to form in his lips.

_I know I'm more sexy, _He thought. That, he could not deny.

XX

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**The End! **

**Wasn't that cute? This is a result of what happens when my family and I get into the spirit of world-cup football. Craziness. I hope you liked it! **

**Please leave a comment and tell me what you think. Thanks!**


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